More Information

A company that owns an industrial plant that knowingly released hundreds of tons of the carcinogen benzene into the air over a five-year span and improperly handled hazardous sludge on the ground was fined $12.5 million on Wednesday, and a manager was sentenced to a year in jail.

Tonawanda Coke Corp. and its former environmental manager, Mark Kamholz, were convicted of federal environmental crimes last year in a case that began with do-it-yourself air testing by neighbors of the plant. The plant, along the Niagara River, burns coal to produce coke, used in steelmaking.

The plant's neighbors suspected that the ever-present dusting of black soot on their houses, cars and patio furniture was connected to their seemingly high rates of cancer and other illnesses.

Following a four-week trial, the company and Kamholz were convicted in March 2013 of violating the Clean Air Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and of improperly disposing of tar sludge and waste from tanks. Besides the fine, U.S. Judge William Skretny ordered Tonawanda Coke to spend up to $12.2 million on two environmental studies.

Tonawanda Coke attorney Gregory Linsin objected to the study provision, saying it amounted to the company paying for findings that could be used against it in 20 civil cases pending in state court.

Because of the civil cases, the judge declined to address the issue of individual harm or to designate residents as victims at the sentencing hearing, which would have entitled them to speak. But he acknowledged the damage inflicted by repeated exposure to cancer-causing toxins between 2005 and 2009.